Hello! Kushi and I are new to CnH! I have some questions.

mykitkushi · Feb 26, 2012

Hello all!

I am a first time chinchilla owner with lots of questions about keeping my Kushi healthy and happy.

I'd like to give you a little background. Kushi is a ten week old female chinchilla. I have had her for two weeks or so. She eats timothy hay and carefresh complete chinchilla food (all pellets, no nuts or fillers). She takes a dust bath every third day, and comes out to play for several hours each night. I clean her ledges and shelves every night with hot water, and change her shavings weekly. She is a bundle of sweetness! Always chittering happily, and climbing the bars of her cage until I let her out to snuggle and play.

On a normal day, she will sleep all day, waking only to eat and drink. Around seven or so she gets up and eats, drinks and gets up her energy for playtime. She usually is out to play from about 7:30ish - 10 or later, but the last few days she has been sleeping later. Right now it's 10:15 and she's just starting to show an interest in coming out to play. Is this ok? I keep reading about lethargy and it makes me nervous. I feel like a new mom!! I'm probably over-reacting to nothing, but I'd love to get your opinions on her excess sleeping.

Also, as I'm new to this lovely forum, I'm still learning the layout. Please be patient with me!

Thank you so very much!!

tunes · Feb 26, 2012

First, welcome to CnH.

Now, I think she's pretty young to be out for that amount of time. It sounds like she's really tired afterwards and is having a slow time recovering her energy. Honestly, I don't believe a young chin should be out that long. Half an hour or so is plenty, especially if she is out every day. I'm sure there are one or two people who would disagree with that, but I think you'll find that by and large most people will agree that she's pretty young for 3 hours of play time out of her cage every day. Try cutting back on that and see if her energy level increases.

mykitkushi · Feb 26, 2012

Thank you! I didn't know what an appropriate amount of time was to let her out, so I basically just let her play until she stops to eat again. I'll try cutting down her play time, and hopefully that will help.

Again, thank you so much!

perabalaofmystery · Feb 26, 2012

when i got my little chins i gave barely any outside the cage playtime. (15-20) enough of me to clean the cage. I waited untill they were much older (6 months) and i began to slowly increase their play time now they play for an 1.5ish hours a day.